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>> 26 September 2012

Egyptian newspaper celebrating expelling of Jews, 1956

After the Egyptian military took power in the country 1952,
it started its campaign against Egyptian Jews, launching its propaganda against
Jews in all the state-owned media. It freed all the terrorists who had
committed violence against Jews before the coup, and jailed liberals and
seculars instead. It encouraged aggression toward the Egyptian Jewish minority,
which led to new terrorist attacks against Jewish individuals and properties in
Egypt.

Between 1954 and 1956, 80,000 Egyptian Jews were expelled
from Egypt, but not before they were robbed of their property. After that,
Egypt revoked their citizenship, forbidding them from returning to their
homeland. Of course, before they left, Egyptian authorities forced them to sign
papers saying that they had been treated fairly and were leaving of their own
will. There are currently around 300 Jews living in Egypt, isolated in an
environment that is hostile to them.

The Christian minority in Egypt (known as Copts) reacted in a
very selfish way at the time, choosing not to interfere in the crisis so as to
avoid any harm. They thought that if they took the side of the dictatorship,
they would be safe. Obviously, it didn’t work.

After the Egyptian military expelled Jews and outlawed Bahais
and Shias, they started their campaign against Christians. The Egyptian regime
has maintained since that time a very fundamental understanding of Islam, and
forced it through the media and the education system. Violent attacks against
Christians became increasingly frequent, and most of the time no one was
prosecuted.

The Egyptian regime created an uncomfortable situation for
Christians in order to force them to leave the country. And the evidence shows
that it worked. Some 4 million Egyptian Christians have emigrated from Egypt over the
last 60 years, representing one-third of the entire Coptic population, and
comprising nearly 75% of Egyptians living abroad.

But Egyptian authorities are not satisfied with that. After
Mohammed Morsi acceded to power, he decided to speed up this process. The
Egyptian regime used the film “Innocence of Muslims” to start a huge propaganda
campaign against Egyptian Christians. The whole propaganda in Egyptian media was saying that this
movie was made by Egyptian Christians who are living abroad, while it’s not. Al-Azhar, 6 April youth, and other institutions in Egypt
which have strong ties with the Egyptian Intelligence issued lots of statements
against the movie. And all of them repeated the same lie that this movie was
created by Egyptian Christians. They even used a Christian man living in USA,
who works also for the Egyptian Intelligence. He kept saying in the media that
he produced the movie, while obviously he didn’t.

And of course, Christians in Egypt are becoming increasingly
isolated under this propaganda. Violence against Christians occurs every day,
and the state usually takes the side of the Muslim murderers.

It isn’t inconceivable that as a way of protecting this
operation, the Egyptian state sponsored the attacks on foreign embassies. A
group of poor thugs were paid and led to the American Embassy in Cairo to
attack it, while they didn’t know where they were, or why they were there.
Similar attacks occurred in other countries in which the Egyptian Intelligence
has power. Not a single attack on a foreign embassy occurred outside the sphere
of Egyptian influence, or what we call what we call “Daughters of July State”, referring to the coup
of July 1952. But
Western countries cared more about their own interests in Muslim countries, and
as usual surrendered to the racist blackmail of the Egyptian regime.

The Egyptian state is also excessively using the laws
forbidding criticism of Islam. At least five Christians are now imprisoned in
Egypt under the accusation of “insulting Islam.” Ayman Youssef Mansour, a 22-year-old blogger, was sentenced in October 2011 to three
years because of comments about Islam on his Facebook page. Gamal Abdou Masoud, a 17-year-old kid, was sentenced to three years’
imprisonment last January because he was tagged on Facebook in a picture that
criticized Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Makarem Diab Said, a
teacher from Asyut, was sentenced in April 2012 to six years’ imprisonment,
because he said some aggressive words against Islam during a quarrel with one
of his colleagues at work. Bishoy El-Beheri, was also sentenced this September to six years’ imprisonment on two
charges: insulting Islam, and insulting Morsi, the new president.

But perhaps the most poignant is the case of Alber Saber, a 27-year-old atheist from a Christian family. He was a
hyperactive person since before the revolution. I first met him after I was
released from prison last year. After that, he repeatedly asked me to launch a
big campaign in Egypt to spread secular ideas. He was super-active on social
media, criticizing religion and promoting atheism. Alber was arrested on
September 13, and is now being tried under accusations of “insulting God” and
“insulting Islam.” We are leading an international campaign on Facebook and Twittercalling for his freedom, in the hope that people will realize
that dictatorships never stop. As long they exist, there will be new victims
every day, and this new victim can be anyone.

The aim of the Egyptian regime in using this charge against
Christians and atheists from Christian background is to create a status of
panic and intimidation among Christians and to make them leave Egypt.
Obviously, it’s working. Tens of thousands of Egyptian Christians are leaving
their homeland every month, and Western countries are opening their doors to
them in the knowledge that they could soon face genocide in their country.

Will Egyptian Christians face the same destiny as Egyptian
Jews?Will the Egyptian regime manage to get rid of Christians and other
minorities? Do the Muslim Brothers want to exclude Christians from the voting
process because Christians usually vote for secular parties? Will Egypt lose
more and more of its diversity? Only time will tell… The Only thing I know is
that if 12 Million Christians were expelled from Middle East, then the same can
happen to other groups also.